1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a head lamp system which senses obstacles in front of a vehicle at night and irradiates spotlight onto the obstacles. More particularly, the present invention relates to a head lamp system which can improve visibility that is a driver's ability to visually recognize an obstacle during the nighttime driving through changing a blink period of a spotlight according to a driving speed of a vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, a head lamp system enables a driver to visually recognize an obstacle through irradiation of light onto a region in which the obstacle is present if such an obstacle is found during the nighttime driving.
Specifically, a head lamp system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2010-095205, as illustrated in FIG. 1, includes a headlight 2 irradiating beams in a front direction of a vehicle at night, and a spotlight unit 3 arranged on a side portion of the headlight 2. In this spotlight unit 3, a plurality of optical modules R1 to R6 are provided, which have respective irradiation regions in the front direction of the vehicle as illustrated in FIG. 2.
In the case of recognizing an obstacle such as a pedestrian or the like in front of the vehicle, the head lamp system in the related art irradiates beams onto the obstacle through turning on the optical module that corresponds to the region in which the obstacle is present, and thus a driver recognizes the obstacle. If the sensed obstacle is a pedestrian, the head lamp system turns on the optical module that flashes on the corresponding region, while if the sensed obstacle is a vehicle, the head lamp system turns off the optical module, and thus the driver can recognize the obstacle.
However, since the head lamp system in the related art recognizes the obstacle by means of a simple operation such as turning-on of the corresponding optical module of the spotlight unit, it may not raise driver's awareness. Due to this, the driver's visibility with respect to the obstacle is degraded, and thus the function of the spotlight unit of the head lamp system may not be appropriately utilized.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.